


Serendipity

by OnceAndFloral



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Allergies Jeremy, Established Relationship, Fluff, IT'S SO FUCKING FLUFFY, Jake is oblivious, Jeremy apparently has good anniversary presents, M/M, Scavenger Hunts, flashback snapshots, it might be a little ooc but i really wanted to write this, sorry - Freeform, they moved back home after college i guess idk, they're in their 20's here except in flashbacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-11-21 14:08:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11359062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnceAndFloral/pseuds/OnceAndFloral
Summary: Apparently after several years of dating, Jeremy comes up with a decent anniversary present. Even if it sends Jake all over town.





	Serendipity

The weird thing about waking up was when Jake woke up to the smell of eggs cooking. He frowned, closing his eyes as he tried to pull his memories out of the dark pits of sleep. Weird thing number one; Jeremy didn’t make eggs. He sucked at making anything not bakery related, so he stayed away from cooking things such as sausage or eggs for breakfast.

Weird thing number two; Jeremy woke up before Jake. Jake couldn’t remember the last time Jeremy had woken up first, due to late nights of TV and Jake’s habits of getting up early to get his morning routines done. 

He dragged himself out of bed, throwing on a shirt to match his sweatpants. It was a small apartment, so the journey wasn't too long and- oh.

Weird thing number three: Rich was in their kitchen making scrambled eggs.

“Rise and shine, dude!” He grinned, doing a strange salute in Jake's direction.

“What're you doing here?”

“Jeremy asked me to help out with your anniversary present.”

Jake’s eyes widened. Oh shit, he'd forgotten. He and Jeremy had managed to get the day off just for this and he'd _forgotten_. “Oh, Jesus, I'm the worst boyfriend.”

“Nah, don't worry. This probably works out better for Jeremy's plans anyways.” Rich shoveled the eggs into a plate and grabbed a fork. “These are for me, by the way.”

Jake rolled his eyes. “So what is this anniversary present?”

“It's like a scavenger hunt kind of thing. And believe me, you’re going to fucking _love_ your reward at the end. I've got your first clue right here.”

“Oh boy.” Jake smiled. Of course Jeremy would come up with something like this, likely with Michael officiating it in the background. This was probably going to be fun. “So what is it?”

“Geez, Jake, let me eat my goddamn eggs.” Rich poked Jake's arm with the end of his fork, dropping down onto a kitchen chair. “I didn't eat dinner last night.”

“And whose fault is that?”

Rich rolled his eyes, a mouthful of food preventing him from speaking. Well, there was nothing he could do until Rich was done, so Jake retreated off to the bathroom to brush his teeth. Thankfully, by the time he came back, the formerly squipped man seemed to be done eating.

“Alright, here’s your first clue.” Rich held out one of his hands, doing a little “gimme” motion.

Jake slowly put his hand in Rich’s, palm facing up. The short man placed something round in his hand. Jake slowly drew his arm back, looking at what Rich had given him.

“Rich, this… this is a pomegranate.” Rich made an exasperated sound.

“Wow, ten out of ten observation skills, Jake. There’s a sticky note on it, by the way.”

Jake twisted the pomegranate around, finding a yellow slip of paper stuck to it. Drawn on it was a small swirl design and the words ”first real conversation”. That wasn’t cryptic or anything. “What does it mean?”

“It’s your scavenger hunt dude.” Rich grabbed a backpack he seemed to have brought. “What do you think it means?”

He looked down at the sticky note, eyes following the path of the swirled drawing. First real conversation. There was that time after the squip when Jake was trying to give him advice for asking out Christine… But that didn't match with a pomegranate and it wasn't really a conversation. Same for that thing in the mall when Jeremy took the squip. And what was the swirl for?

One memory tugged at the back of his mind. One night with inky blackness outside store windows and dancing around topics. “Pinkberry.”

Rich grinned. “Hey, you got it!” He slung his bag over his shoulder. “Alright dude, good luck and have fun. I’ve got some other shit to do.” Jake nodded, watching him disappear out the door. He guessed he should probably head over to Pinkberry now.

Jake grabbed his keys, thinking back to that night.

_Brooke dragged Jeremy, Jake, Christine and Jenna through the doors of Pinkberry, grinning widely despite the late hour. Normally Jake didn’t go out on the town this late, but Brooke seemed excited._

_Outside the window was nothing but pitch darkness, giving the illusion that the Pinkberry had been lost in the void. “What do you guys want?” Brooke asked cheerfully._

_“Chocolate with bananas for toppings!” Christine grinned._

_“I’ll get some of the original shit with cheesecake bites.” Jenna looked up from her phone to answer this. Huh. Jake hadn’t seen her do that before._

_“What about you Jake?” Brooke looked at him expectantly._

_“Uh… I’ll just get some pomegranate. No toppings.”_

_She nodded, turning to go to the counter. Jake frowned. “Hey, wait, you forgot Jeremy.”_

_Brooke turned back. Jeremy shrunk down into his chair, fiddling with a silicone bracelet on his wrist. Jake had never seen him wear that before. Or maybe he just hadn’t noticed it. “Jeremy’s allergic to peanuts and nuts. He can’t eat anything here because of cross contamination.”_

_“Sorry about that.” Jeremy said quietly._

_“Hey, it’s fine.” Christine patted his hand. “We’re the ones who should be sorry for going to a place where you can’t eat.” She shot a look at Brooke, who held her hands up defensively._

_“I’m sorry! I like the place.”_

_“It’s okay guys, this isn’t the first time it’s happened to me.” Jeremy smiled weakly at the before directly his attention back to what Jake now recognized as a medical bracelet._

_Brooke swiveled around once again. “I’m gonna go order.”_

_“I’ll help you.” Christine piped up._

_Jenna stood up from the seat she had taken. “I know the person behind the counter, I wanna catch up.”_

_“You guys have fun.” Jake shot them a thumbs up as they walked away. Now just he and Jeremy were left sitting at the table alone. Jeremy coughed a bit._

_“I, uh, I’m sorry.”_

_“What?”_

_“I…” Jeremy paused. “The squip th-thing. I ruined ev-everything.”_

_That had happened three weeks ago. Jeremy and Jake hadn’t had much contact since then except through friends. Jake wasn’t sure which of them was avoiding the other. “Dude, that’s fine. You didn’t mean to do all that shit.”_

_“Yea but… you’re so_ nice _to me, and I just… You’ve lost so much.” Jeremy bit down on his lip._

_“I mean, you’ve gone through a lot too. Like the squip did all that shocking stuff.”_

_Jeremy jolted in his seat. “How-how’d you know?”_

_“The scars travel up your neck a bit. I thought you knew.” The paler boy’s hand flew up to cover the back of his neck. Fuck, now Jake felt like shit for making him feel self conscious. “It’s fine though! It’s not all that noticeable!”_

_Jeremy’s hand slowly slipped away from his neck. “So. Uh, I just thought I should-should say that.”_

_“Really, don’t worry. If you really want me to feel better, you’ll forgive yourself for it.” Jake gave him the best smile he could muster. Jeremy smiled back briefly, then slipped back into a depressive state. “Um, how are things going with Christine?”_

_“It’s fine. It’s a little weird. It… nothing bad is happening. We have fun when we go out, we make each other laugh. But it doesn’t feel right.”_

_“Do you have eyes for someone else?” He’d seen Michael and Jeremy hanging out a lot, and frankly, he was surprised when he learned they weren’t dating._

_“No. It’s just strange. It might just be me, so I’m holding out to see if that’s what’s going on.” Jeremy mumbled. “Hah, it seems a little late to be talking about stuff like this.”_

_“What? No, eleven thirty is a wonderful time to talk feelings in a Pinkberry.”_

_Jeremy snickered quietly. “Really? I prefer midnight.”_

_“Weak. The absolute_ best _time is two in the morning.”_

_“You don’t really strike me as a night owl.”_

_“Oh dear fucking god, I’m not, am I convincing?”_

_The snickering evolved into giggling. “Totally convincing.” He it down on his lip, pulling out his phone. “I… don’t think I have your number.”_

_“Oh, yea, lemme just…” Jake fumbled to get his phone out. By the time the girls had come back with the frozen yogurt, the two had each other in their contacts._

_“Why pomegranate?” Jenna asked as she dropped the reddish treat in front of Jake._

_He shrugged. “I normally get mango. I just figured I should try something new._

Jeremy and Christine did break up after that. About two months later. Surprisingly Christine had been the one to do it. Maybe not surprisingly. Jeremy had a habit of not stopping even when he went to far. He’d gotten better since then but...

Jake blinked himself out of his reverie. Oh shit, he was already here. He put the car into park in front of the local Pinkberry, rolling back his shoulders. Okay, time to finish this scavenger hunt.

He swung his legs out of the car and hauled himself to his feet, closing the car door behind him. Jake pushed through the glass doors and took a deep breath of the cold, air conditioned air inside. The store was mostly empty, save for the workers behind the counter and Brooke sitting at a table in the middle of the store.

“Hey! You figured out the pomegranate clue!” She chirped. “I told Jeremy that it was really far fetched but he insisted you’d get it. Turns out he was right. What was the clue about?”

“It was the first time we talked to each other. Like, _really_ talked to each other, without squips or insults.”

“Yea.” Brooke took a bite of her frozen yogurt. “High school was stupid like that. Not everyone can just say something to each other. But hey, you and Jeremy met each other.”

“I guess so.” Jake shrugged. “What’s my next clue?”

Brooke held out a strip of white paper bordered with blue. He took it and flipped it over, finding a group of dots connected by a series of lines in the shape of a weird “H”, like one of those puzzles the teachers always gave them in elementary. In the bottom right corner was a number seven and the words “fell in love.”

“God dammit.” Jake raked his fingers through his hair.

“What?”

“The fuck am I supposed to do with this?”

Brooke shrugged. “Not my scavenger hunt.”

“You sound like Rich.”

Okay, think Jake, Jeremy had to have told you this story. Fuck. He knew when _he_ fell in love with Jeremy, or at least realized he _was_ in love. The day Jeremy scrambled in late to a lecture they shared, glasses askew on his face and eyes wide. He dropped down next to Jake.

“You got notes I can borrow?”

“Yea, of course.”

Jeremy had looked at him like Jake had put the stars in the sky. “God, I love you so much.” And the feeling of _“holy shit.”_ had washed over Jake like a tidal wave.

Wait. Stars. He looked back down at the paper, turning the pattern of dots over in his head. “Holy shit, I know what this is.”

Brooke smiled. “Oh yea?”

“The park.”

“Nice job Jake, turns out you know how your boyfriend’s mind works.” Brooke clapped her hands. “You have to tell me what the clue means later! But right now _go_! Find your man.”

Jake jumped to his feet, already rushing back to the car with memories rushing through his head.

_”How do we always end up hanging out when it’s late?” Jake groaned as Jeremy drag him through the trees of the local park. The only source of light was the single lamp post the city had installed at the edge of the grass._

_He and Jeremy had been hanging out a lot over the past two years since the squip. Unfortunately, their schedules didn't match up so they often had to resort to late night meetings. Which was great for a night owl like Jeremy, but no so great for Mr. Rise-And-Set-With-The-Sun Jake. He always asked the same question, and he was always greeted with the same answer._

_“Because night time is the best time.” Jeremy said. “Come on, co-operate with me, you’re like a wall of solid muscle.”_

_“Ugh, but I’m_ lazy _.”_

_“Like hell you are! You didn’t get to the point where you could chuck me across a room by being lazy!”_

_Jake grinned. “Aw, you’re flattering me dude.” He yelped as he almost tripped over the roots of one of the trees. “Where are we going anyways?”_

_“To the best place in the park.” Jeremy continued to haul Jake across the damp grass until they reached an area between a small grove of trees. “Alright, here it is. Best place you’ll ever see in this park.”_

_Jake looked around. “What’s so special about it.” Jeremy rolled his eyes, dropping down to sit on the grass._

_“It’s the only place where you can see the sky through the canopy.” Jake craned his neck to look up. He was right. Though you could only see a few groupings of stars, they were there._

_“Whoa…” Jake slowly sat down next to the shorter boy, fixated on the little pinpoints of light. “That looks fucking cool with the leaves framing it.”_

_“I know, right?” Jeremy grinned, flapping his hands. “You see that one group that kind of looks like a weird X with an oddly shaped box in the middle? Or maybe more like a wonky “H”...”_

_“I… Think so?”_

_“And the cluster of stars at the bottom right line?”_

_“Yea, I got it.”_

_“Those are the Pleiades. You can only see six of them, but there's actually seven. The myth is that they're all sisters, and one of them fell in love with a guy that the others didn't like him, so they hid her from everyone else.”_

_“Why do you know so much about this?”_

_“Despite popular belief, I do use my laptop for more than porn.” Jeremy's eyes shifted to the side. “Also, uh, I was kind of a space kid. And I got locked in the school library once.”_

_Jake laughed. “That's kind of sad. But you went to the mythology section instead of the fiction?”_

_“Oh, shut up.” Jeremy shoved the cool kid. The movement didn't budge him, taking into account their difference in body mass. “I was locked in for a long time.”_

_“Holy shit, that's adorable.” He realized Jeremy was staring at him oddly. “Uh, you doing okay there bro?”_

_Jeremy blinked. “H-Huh? Oh y-yea, I was just thinking about-about something.”_

_“Like…?”_

_“Oh! Um…” Jeremy floundered around for a few moments. “How-how there's only like a week l-left of our senior year. We're going to college soon.”_

_“Yea, we're, like, all going to the same college.”_

_“I-it's just. Surreal.” He took a deep breath. “How about I show you Orion?”_

_“Sounds good._

Wow, Jake was really oblivious. Thank fucking god Michael gave him that slap to the face those years ago. Speaking of Michael, he caught sight of a familiar red hoodie lounging out on the grass with his foot tapping to the rhythm of whatever music was playing through his headphones, in the same spot he and Jeremy were sitting that night.

“Welcome to the park dude.” Michael grinned.

Jake couldn’t help but smile. “Thanks dude. By the way, why are you guys giving me the most cryptic fucking clues? Like, a pomegranate and a sticky note with a swirl drawn on it? Who approved that shit?”

“You solved it, didn’t you?” Michael frowned. “Wait, Rich didn’t tell you the answer, right? He promised he wouldn’t.”

“No, he didn’t tell me. Jeremy somehow remembered I decided to try pomegranate froyo when we first talked and I recognized the Pinkberry swirl.”

“Okay, good. We put traitors through ritualistic sacrifice.”

Jake snorted. “Give me the next clue, you goddamn nerd.”

Michael held a hand to his chest in mock offense. “How could you Jake? I thought we were _friends_.” His expression shifted to something more serious. “Hey, be careful with this one. It means a lot to Jeremy.”

He took a thin, navy blue paperback book with a faded cover and dog eared pages. Jake gingerly accepted it, running a finger over the childish art done for the cover. Jeremy’s comfort book, The Little Prince. It had been one of the few things he’d always been really reluctant to let Jake touch. 

Down in the bottom left corner was another sticky note reading “where we began”. 

“Gonna ask for a hint, Dillinger?” Michael asked.

“No. I think I know this one.”

_”Thanks for coming along.” Jeremy smiled almost nervously as he clicked around through Netflix on his laptop. “I haven’t seen Dad in forever, and I was really happy when he invited me but then I got nervous about the trip and-”_

_“Hey, don’t worry about it.” Jake smirked nudging his shoulder. “I kinda missed this place, even if it does have some… bad memories attached to it.”_

_“I’m sorry.”_

_“Seriously. Don’t apologize. I’m having fun.”_

_“Yea, fun while we’re waiting in my house alone waiting for my dad to come back.” Something caught in Jake’s throat. He’d been crushing on Jeremy for almost months now but hadn’t said anything for fear of scaring Jeremy off. The guy was anxious, and one wrong move might send him running away. Michael had been the one to tell him he needed to make a move, and soon. So Jake was hoping to use this trip to do just that._

_Jeremy nudged his shoulder, drawing Jake out of his thoughts. “You mind watching this?” He had the menu for a movie called The Little Prince pulled up. “It’s a little childish, but it’s kind of like a comfort blanket for me.”_

_“Nah, it’s fine. I’m a sucker for Disney, so it’s not like I can talk.”_

_That’s how the night started. Jeremy starting the movie and pressing into Jake’s side like everything was normal and Jake wasn’t dying inside because he wasn’t used to not being able to express his feelings._

_Jeremy would hum along with the soundtrack or flap his hands when something good happened, and why was it so god damn endearing? When Jeremy started crying Jake got worried, but he was quickly assured it happened every time he watched this movie._

_“Then why did you chose it?”_

_“Crying’s good sometimes.”_

_The worst part was at the end, when Jake could feel tears slipping down his own cheeks and Jeremy rested his head on Jake’s shoulder, eyes gleaming wet behind his glasses (the round ones that he’d been wearing more recently because he was getting sick of contacts drying his eyes out, and kind of made Jake’s heart melt in his chest) and a soft smile on his lips. “Dammit, man, you didn’t tell me this was gonna make_ me _cry.”_

_“I thought that went without saying.” Jeremy’s voice was thick with tears. He inched back away from Jake. “Sorry. I just really like this movie.”_

_“What did I say earlier? It’s okay.”_

_Jeremy flashed a tired smile in all of his pale, anxious glory. Before Jake could really control himself he was already blurting out. “Do you want to go out sometime?”_

_“What?”_

_“Fuck.” Jake cursed under his breath. No backing out of this now. “I mean, I’ve been thinking about asking you for a while now, and maybe this isn’t the best time but-”_

_“No, I’ve been waiting for you to ask me for years!” Jeremy grinned, grabbing onto one of Jake’s arms._

_“Wha- Why didn’t you?”_

_“I thought you would say no…” He mumbled._

_Oh. Fuck. “I was actually hoping to maybe go for something more romantic when I asked you…”_

_“Jake, are you kidding me?” Jeremy’s hands began moving around in short, excited motions. “Asking me out after my favorite movie in a dark house? That’s like my version of… I don’t know, amazing!”_

_Jake laughed. “Then do you wanna consider tonight a date night and binge children’s movies?”_

_“Fuck yes.”_

_“Can I kiss you?”_

_“I’m probably going to punch you if you don’t.”_

That had been years ago, and they’d thankfully been going strong since. He wasn’t going to say everything was perfect, but it was probably as close to perfect as Jake was going to get. 

He stood at the doorstep of the Heere residence, one hand hovering over the knocker. The place hadn’t changed a bit since he had last visited with Jeremy. Mr. Heere’s car was in the driveway. Jake assumed that he was going to be the one to give him the next clue. He took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

There was the sound of scrabbling on the other side of the door before Mr. Heere opened the door with a large smile on his face. “Ah, the young Dillinger! Jeremy said you’d be stopping by today!”

“I mean, it was kind of likely I wouldn’t. These clues have been really abstract.”

Mr. Heere pat his shoulder. “You would have gotten it anyways.” He pressed an envelope into Jake’s hand. “Here you go, kid. And, hey. Thanks for taking care of my son.”

Jake swallowed hard. “No problem.” Mr. Heere beamed, closing the door and leaving Jake standing alone on the porch with an envelope.

He jogged back to his car, carefully tearing the folds of white paper apart. Inside was a small, pale blue note card with lines scrawled in Jeremy’s thin, scratchy print.

_Hey Jake! Sorry I’ve had you running around town looking for things! But I wanted to do something really special for this one. Michael helped me out with this one, and thankfully we moved back so I could use all the same locations! I don’t think it would have been the same if I had used a different park, and I can’t exactly send you to someone else’s house, can I?_

_Wow, I really drone on when I’m writing. Anyways, this isn’t really a clue, because I’m going tell you where to go. I’m gonna be waiting back at the apartment for you with the gift I’ve been saving for you. I might, you might not like it so you don’t have to accept it, but hopefully you will! Anyways, I’ll stop now.  
Love you._

_-Jeremy_

* * *

By the time Jake had gotten back home, the sun was setting and the air was cooling down. For some reason, as he stood at the door with the key in the lock, he was nervous. He couldn’t explain why, he just was. Jesus, what was he so worked up about? He took a deep breath, turning the key and pushing through the door.

As the door swung shut behind him, he heard loud cursing coming from the kitchen. “Whoa, Jeremy, are you okay?”

“Yea! I’m fine! I just wasn’t expecting you home for a while.” 

“If you wanted me home later you should have made more clues.” Jake called as he walked into the kitchen. Jeremy was lightly dusted in flour and sugar as he dumped cake batter into a pan. “Holy shit, you’re making cake?”

“I bake stuff all the time, Jake.” Jeremy smiled as Jake wrapped his arms around the lanky male’s waist.

“Yea but you don’t make cake very often and I’d fucking _die_ for it.” He frowned. Jeremy was trembling lightly in his arms, taking shaky breaths. “Hey, are you okay?”

“I’m-I’m fine, I just…” Jeremy grabbed something from the counter. “You want your anniversary present?”

“Sure, but Jeremy, are you really-” He was cut off as Jeremy held up a ring pop. “...That’s a ring pop.”

“W-Well, I’m kind of bro-broke and I couldn’t afford a real one so I had to improvise.” Jeremy stopped to slow his breathing. 

“Jer, maybe you should sit down…”

“Will you marry me?”

A beat. “What?”

“No, no, no, fuck I’m sorry this was a bad idea, I’m sor-” Jake shushed him.

“Whoa, calm down! This is amazing, I was just surprised!”

Jeremy blinked slowly. “So you mean you-”

“I’m saying yes, Jeremy.”

“Oh my god!” The two dissolved into laughter as Jake spun Jeremy around the kitchen. He felt like he was six thousand feet in the air. _Jeremy just fucking proposed_.

“I never expected you’d be the one to make the move.” Jake grinned.

“Well, uh, you’re the one who asked me out in the first place, so I wanted to be the one to take this step.”

Jake caught Jeremy’s lips in a quick kiss. “I hope you know I’m only marrying you for the sex.” Jeremy said teasingly.

“Oh, well good, because I’m pretty good at that.” Jake shot back. Jeremy rolled his eyes and gently flicked his wrist. “I can’t believe I’m marrying Jeremy Heere.”

“And I can’t believe Jake Dillinger agreed to marry me.”

“What I _really_ can’t believe is that you proposed with a ring pop.”

“What did I say about being broke?”

Jake chuckled. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> hOLY SHIT I FINALLY WROTE IT. Anyways, I did extensive research on Pinkberry for that first section, and I don't even know why I tried that hard. Sorry if it wasn't very good but I wanted to write this. And here it is. Hope you enjoyed it anyways!
> 
> Catch me on tumblr as latenightbutterfiies ! I'm always up for talking.
> 
> Kudos are always appreciated and comments essentially make my week!


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